Union role for Witney teacher

Geoff Branner, 59, will take over the role in the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) today at its annual conference in Birmingham.

He teaches pupils with special educational needs at Banbury Academy and has also worked at Carterton Community College and Lord Williams’s School in Thame.

Early Road resident Mr Branner, a former Witney town councillor who is currently senior vice-president of the union, said: “I want to use my presidential year to support every member to play his or her own part in defending teachers’ pay and conditions of service and taking personal responsibility for that defence.

“I will be a passionate advocate for the return of teacher professionalism and the rolling back of the excessive and punitive monitoring that has swept the profession in recent years.”